


Hammerhands - The Legend of Hammersmith

by raptor4d4



Category: Original Work
Genre: Blood and Gore, Character Death, Cheating, Corny, Death, F/M, Gore, Haunted Houses, Haunting, Horror, Monsters, Original Character Death(s), Sex, Survival Horror, Tropes, ghost - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 04:41:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16468958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raptor4d4/pseuds/raptor4d4
Summary: In this trope-filled horror adventure, a group of teens spend the night in the home of Hammersmith!  A carpenter who died years ago, he went mad after losing his hands in a terrible accident only to have hammers implanted in the stumps by his scheming wife.  Now his spirit roams the halls of his rebuilt home, butchering all those who return his knocks in the dead of night.  Will these teens survive as they bring this horror upon themselves...?





	Hammerhands - The Legend of Hammersmith

[Disclaimer]

This is a wholly original story and a complete work of fiction.

Any resemblance to any actual persons or events is entirely coincidental. 

** Hammerhands – The Legend of Hammersmith **

In the early days of the small town of Summerville, there lived a man named Hammersmith and his wife Brenda. The wealthiest couple in town they were, for like his namesake Hammersmith was a master with a hammer and almost single-handedly built most of the homes in the town. He built them quickly and skillfully and the end result was always an absolutely beautiful and sturdy home that would still be standing a hundred years later.

Hammersmith and his wife seemingly had a bright future ahead of them until tragedy struck. A terrible accident crushed both of his hands and ended his career. But this was not the worst part. His wife was secretly a selfish and greedy woman who only married Hammersmith for the great wealth he promised her. If he was unable to work then it was only a matter of time before the money dried up. So as her husband laid unconscious in the hospital, she jumped at an option proposed to her by the town’s surgeon. A man of few ethics, and also eagerly awaiting the construction of his own Hammersmith home, the surgeon convinced his wife to allow him to perform a surgery that would let him keep working. When Hammersmith later awoke, he found that his hands had been cut off and two hammers grafted into the stumps of his wrists. Brenda and the surgeon thought surely he could continue working if he could wield a hammer like this! He would be able to finish his outstanding jobs and the money will keep pouring in. But they was wrong. So very wrong.

His mutilation drove Hammersmith mad. He raged at his wife for granting the surgeon permission and threatened to kill her for turning him into an abomination. Fearing scandal, Brenda locked Hammersmith away in a windowless room in their home, just off the kitchen, and told everyone that her husband was ill and had to be kept isolated. Day and night Hammersmith would scream at his wife and bang his hammer hands on the walls. Brenda would always bang back to silence him, never speaking to her husband. This continued for months until one evening Hammersmith burst from the room, having broken the locks with his hammer hands at last. He chased his wife all through the house until he cornered her and proceeded to savagely crush her body with his hammers. During the struggle a lamp was knocked over and set the whole house ablaze, eventually burning Hammersmith alive as he continued to break every bone in Brenda’s body…

Years later, the people of Summerville built a new home where the old Hammersmith mansion stood, duplicating the original as closely as possible. As soon as it was finished, rumors started to circulate that the house was haunted. Anyone who lived there claimed to see strange shadows at night. Shadows of a figure seemingly holding two hammers would appear in the halls. Sightings of a mysterious man in scorched overalls and his face covered in a bloody rag. And on the anniversary of Hammersmith’s demise, October 12th, people would hear strange knocking echoing from somewhere in the house. Knocking…or hammering. Many families came and went from the house, often terrified by all the strange happenings. But the last family never left that house alive. The story goes that one member of the family got fed up and returned the knocking, banging on the walls to silence it. The townsfolk believe that this provoked Hammersmith’s ghost, drawing him out to kill them just like he did his wife. No one knows for certain. And for decades after, the house stood empty and abandoned.

A few years ago, a wealthy family in modern Summerville bought the abandoned house and decided to turn it into a museum/house of horrors. Everything was going smoothly preparing the house for tourists…until one worker late at night was found the next morning, his body crushed repeatedly with hammers. After that the project was abandoned. It didn’t mean no one has visited the house since though. Teens from the local high school often snuck into the house either to party or on a dare. Spend a night in the house, especially on October 12th, and you proved you weren’t chicken. Not many went through it. Those that attempted never stayed the whole night, scared away by the mysterious knocking they could not identify. But no one ever dared to return the knocking…until this one October 12th when six teens entered the house.

Brandy was unquestionably the most popular girl in school. Her curly golden blonde hair and stellar figure made her the envy of every girl and the ultimate desire of every guy. Her great wealth also contributed to that, her family owning the Hammersmith house. As such she decided it would be the perfect place for her plan. She was the head cheerleader at the school and she always had the unofficial final say on who joined the cheerleading squad. Her most recent denial was Rachel, an all-around “average” girl whom Brandy rejected because she was one of the few students who didn’t bow to her every whim. Rachel raised a big stink with the faculty when she was rejected. Since no truly valid reason could be provided for her rejection, Rachel was given a spot on the squad and a firm place at the top of Brandy’s “I Hate You” list. Brandy resolved to humiliate Rachel in some fashion and decided the Hammersmith house would be the perfect place for it.

Brandy gathered her closest circle of friends/minions. Chief among them was her boyfriend Jason, the school’s top football star, and her best friend/favorite minion Juliet who could always be found in her shadow. Jason was tall and rip so he felt confident he could handle things but as a precaution he brought some backup. Tall, black and equally rip, Jason’s football buddy Joe joined them as extra muscle. Not that they needed it to drag Rachel to the house on a dare. Brandy hit Rachel with an ultimatum. Rachel would be welcomed onto the cheerleading squad with open arms and Brandy would never complain again if Rachel could spend the entire night in this house on October 12th. But if Rachel failed, she would leave the squad and issue a formal public apology to Brandy. Rachel accepted the challenge but she was no fool. She knew Brandy and her minions would try to do _something_ to scare her. She accepted the deal but insisted that her best friend Clive come with them. Clive was very much a nerd but he wasn’t a wimp. He didn’t scare easily and could always find ways to scientifically explain any weird or creepy phenomenon. He always said, “If I can’t see it with my own eyes, it isn’t real.” With Clive there, Rachel was sure she could face whatever cheap scare they had in store for her.

The evening began with a tour of the house. Dust and dirt covered every surface. Much of the house was furnished but a few areas were still being renovated when the house was abandoned again. Some of the construction workers even left their tools behind, too scared to come back and retrieve them. Their tour took them throughout the second floor all the way to the basement. They did not linger long in the basement. They did not want their feet to be impaled by nails. Construction workers dumped all the old boards they pried up down here. Many of them rested face up with their rusty nails turning the entire basement into a veritable spike pit.

Once the tour was concluded they gathered in the living room. While there, Rachel saw an opportunity to tease Brandy before the scares could begin. An old portrait salvaged from the original Hammersmith house hung over the mantle. A portrait of Hammersmith’s wife. She bore a striking resemblance to Brandy and Rachel teased her that Hammersmith was coming for her. Brandy took it with a smile, secretly confident that Rachel was going to get hers…

Everyone lit candles and lanterns and scattered through the house, looking for a place to hole up for the night. Rachel bought sleeping bags for her and Clive. She found a room with a sturdy door, unrolled the sleeping bags and barricaded the door with her and Clive inside. “The fastest way to get through this night is to sleep through it,” Clive told her as they prepared to depart for the house. It was good advice. And by barricading the door they made it so that if Brandy’s group wanted to pull any pranks on them they would have to fight through a big mess first.

They both climbed into their sleeping bags and did their best to drift off to dreamland. They were almost successful…until they heard a faint hammering in the distance.

“It must be Brandy…” Rachel grunted. She was about to bang on the walls and yell at them when Clive grabbed her arm to stop her.

“Remember the legend!” he said. “Knocking back will summon Hammersmith!”

“I thought you didn’t believe in the legend?” she asked.

“I don’t. But if Brandy intends to play out a prank, the second half won’t begin until you knock back.”

Clive’s suspicions were true. A few rooms away Bob knocked on the wall with a hammer. Jason was getting dressed in old overalls so he could play the part of Hammersmith when Rachel or Clive knocked back. Brandy and Julia stood back and giggled in excitement as they listened for the return knock. Their excitement dwindled as none came. After nearly half an hour of nonstop knocking, they gave up.

“We’ll try again later,” Brandy declared, determined not to give up after one failed attempt. Everybody split up to do their own thing while they waited. Brandy sat out on the front porch to watch the stars. Joe sat in the kitchen with his walkman, listening to music through his headphones. Jason, still in his Hammersmith overalls, wandered around to check out the various rooms again. When he investigated the master bedroom on the second floor, something swooped out of the shadows and grabbed him. It was Julia. She grabbed him and kissed him. Jason did not struggle with her advance. Instead he kissed her back.

Despite being Brandy’s boyfriend and best friend respectively, Jason and Julia were seeing each other behind her back. The forbidden and deceitful nature of their relationship made it all the hotter for them. Having sex in a haunted house with Brandy just outside was just too enticing to pass up. They climbed into bed and went at it like the horny teens they were. During the sex, Jason heard the faint sound of knocking in the distance…

“Uh oh!” he thought. “Brandy and Bob are starting up again! Better finish…” He picked up the pace. He fucked Julia so hard that the headboard started banging loudly against the wall. It kept banging long after the knocking stopped…

On the floor below, slowly a door creaked open. A door just off the kitchen were Bob sat listening to his music. The door to the same room Hammersmith was locked in by his wife in the original house. Slowly a dark figure shuffled out of the room. Dressed in scorched overalls, bloody rags covering his head except for one grisly eye, Hammersmith appeared and raised his hammer hands as he crept up on Joe. Still engrossed in his music, Joe was completely oblivious as the murderous specter came up behind him. He started bobbing his head to the beat as Hammersmith raised his hammers. And as the music came to its crescendo, Hammersmith plunged his hammers into Joe’s head, crushing the sides of his skull. Joe’s jaw dropped and his eyes crossed as his brains turned to mush. Hammersmith wrenched out his hammers and Joe collapsed onto the table, blood pouring out the holes in his head and shorting out his walkman. With his first victim dead, Hammersmith shuffled away to find the one who knocked back…

The door to the bedroom slowly creaked open, the noise drowned out by the lustful groans and whimpers emanating from the bed. Jason and Julia were still going at it, both of them nearing climax as the terrifying specter shuffled closer to the bed. Julia was the first to see him. Jason was on top, his back to Hammersmith. Julia was digging her nails into Jason’s back as she begged him to do her harder. The orgasm she longed for was almost upon her when she opened her eyes and looked over Jason’s shoulder. Her screams of terror drowned out his yells of climax. Jason was perplexed by her reaction and turned around just in time to see Hammersmith raise his hammers…and smash them into his body. His left hammer crushed Jason’s shoulder and his right hammer smashed into his skull.

The horrifying creature grunted and yelled incoherently as it proceeded to crush more and more of Jason’s body. Whether intentional or not, Jason ended up acting as a shield for Julia. Blood gushed out of his body and covered her as she screamed and screamed. She eventually managed to push Jason off her and slide to the floor. Hammersmith ignored her as he continued to work on Jason. She instinctively grabbed a bloody blanket and used it to cover herself as she

Cowered in the corner. Her screaming grew louder as Hammersmith reduced her boyfriend’s body to a pulpy mass of blood and flesh. When Hammersmith finished, his eye snapped to the terrified teen, ready to plunge his hammers into his next victim.

Julia’s eyes darted towards the door. Before she could think to run to it, Hammersmith suddenly moved to block her path. She was trapped. 

“HAMMERSMITH!” she screamed. “HAMMERSMITH! HAMMERSMITH! HAMMERSMIIIIIITH!”

Terrified of meeting the same fate as Jason, Julia smashed through the window above the bed to escape, completely forgetting that she was on the second floor. She fell. Fell and landed on an exterior basement door. The old wood broke easily on impact. She fell through and hit the concrete steps hard. A loud crack followed as her neck broke, ending Julia’s life. But if the fall didn’t kill her, the bed of rusty nails on the floor would have. Her limp body rolled down the steps and was skewered by nails on the old boards discarded there. 

Julia’s demise did not go unwitnessed. Brandy was still outside when the screaming started and heard it all the way out on the front porch. The basement door and the window were all on the front side of the house. Brandy gasped in horror as her best friend came crashing out the window and dropped to her death. She briefly checked on her fallen friend had to run back inside after seeing Julia’s mangled dead body. 

Meanwhile, Julia’s screamed roused the other inhabitants of the house. Despite Clive insisting it was another prank, Rachel brought down the barricade on their room and ran out to investigate. Their chosen room was on the first floor so she ran to the stairs by the kitchen to run to Julia’s aid, running headlong into Brandy in the process. They both bounced to the floor on impact. Brandy cursed Rachel for her newfound headache and struggled to stand, for some reason slipping on something wet and sticky each time she tried. Rachel had no such difficulty but rather than reply with some witty retort as she normally would, with a trembling hand she pointed in horror at something behind Brandy. She turned to look as Clive arrived and stood next to Rachel. The three of them shrieked in terror at Bob’s body, softly illuminated by the light of his lantern.

“Oh my God!” Brandy gasped. “The legend...the legend is TRUE!!!”

Rachel found herself gripping Clive’s arm. This wasn’t fake. Julia’s screams were far too sincere to ever be faked! And Bob...he was really dead. They couldn’t fake those holes in his head. She quickly asked Brandy about Julia and Jason. Where were they? But Brandy was too hysteric to properly answer. 

“Dead! They’re all dead!” she shrieked. “Bob’s dead! Julia’s dead! Jason is...sleeping with her…?”

Brandy drifted off, a realization suddenly clicking in her mind. She finally realized that Julia was naked when she died. Why would she be naked unless...she was sleeping with someone? The only possible option was Jason. Clive and Rachel rolled their eyes. Leave it to Brandy to worry about her boyfriend’s infidelity while their lives were in danger! They still had to check and confirm that Jason was really dead but as they heard ominous shuffling at the top of the steps, they had another idea. 

“LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!” Clive yelled. They ran to the front door just as a shadow appeared at the top of the steps. They didn’t stop to see what. They ran out to Jason’s truck and tried to start her up and escape. The engine sputtered but refused to start.

“What the fuck?!” exclaimed Rachel.

“Shit! The battery’s dead!” noted Clive.

They were royally fucked! There was a forest between here and town. If horror movies taught these three anything it’s that you don’t want to be lost in the woods in the middle of the night while a homicidal ghost is chasing after you! They needed to get the truck working. For that they needed a new battery. Sadly the only place they could possibly find one…was inside the house with all the construction equipment.

Another lesson from horror movies was to NEVER go back into a house that you know holds a murderous ghost. But if they wanted to escape, they had no choice…

They crept back into the house. They snuck in the back door, closer to the construction. They moved slowly and quietly, listening intently for sound of Hammersmith approaching. They heard nothing upstairs or on the first floor. Maybe the monster was already satisfied and disappeared? They could only hope. They quickly found the equipment and Clive and Rachel went to work extracting a battery from a big machine they were going to use to knock down a wall. Brandy stood watch. Or so she said. The only thing she was watching for was Hammersmith so she could get away and leave these other two to get killed while she slipped away. Little did she know that Hammersmith was watching her closely from the shadows. Rachel wasn’t the only one to note her resemblance to Hammersmith’s wife…

It started with a ferocious roar. Hammersmith seemed to jump out of the wall itself and lunged at Brandy. But he did not strike her head to kill her as he did with Bob and Jason. Oh no, he wanted his “wife” to suffer. With a swift swing of his hammer hands he crushed Brandy’s knees. She collapsed and screamed in agony from her broken legs. Her screams only grew louder as more of her bones broke. Hammersmith wanted her end to be as slow and painful as possible. He crushed the bones in her feet. Then he crushed the bones in her hands. He wanted her utterly helpless. Brandy screamed and begged Hammersmith for mercy. She would receive none.

As twisted as it was, Brandy’s suffering provided Rachel and Clive with an opportunity. Hammersmith was so focused on her that Clive and Rachel were able to extract the battery. With it clutched in his arms, Clive wanted to immediately escape. But Rachel wanted to stop and help Brandy.

“To hell with that!” Clive said in a panic. Before she could stop him Clive ran out the back door with the battery. Rachel turned back to Brandy, desperately trying to think of a way to save her. But by this point she realized it was too late. Blood was gushing from Brandy’s mouth. Even if she did get Hammersmith off her, her injuries were too severe. She’d never survive long enough to get to a hospital. Brandy looked up at Rachel pleadingly but all Rachel could do was tearfully shake her head and back away before following Clive out the back door.

She circled around the house, desperately trying to block out Brandy’s terrible screams and Hammersmith’s roaring. She paused only to listen to the sound of silence after Brandy’s screams died out. She was dead. Rachel forced herself to run some more and rounded the corner in time to see Clive slamming the hood of the truck shut after successfully installing the battery.

“Clive!” she called out. Her friend motioned for her to join him. 

“Come on!” he called out. Then he turned white as a sheet as he eyed the front door. Rachel didn’t need to look to guess who was standing there. She ran as hard and as fast as she could to the truck as Clive climbed in. But halfway there, she slipped and fell in some mud.

“OW!” she cried, having twisted her ankle in the fall. “Clive!” she called out painfully. “Help me!” Her words came just as Clive turned on the engine. Their eyes met. The world seemed to stand still for the longest time…until Clive put the truck into drive and sped off. .

“Clive?!” Rachel called out incredulously. “CLIVE!”

Her screaming was drowned out by the sound of Clive speeding away. Her best friend, the man she thought was anything but a coward, proved himself to be just that as he tried to leave her to Hammersmith. He didn’t get far though. Hammersmith was not at all confined to the house. He materialized in the road, raised his hammer hands above his head and brought them crashing down into the hood of the car with incredible force. The hood caved in and the car stopped dead, causing the airbag to explode in Clive’s face. Heavily disoriented, Clive stumbled out of the truck and right into Hammersmith’s clutches. He looked at the monster in sheer terror. He always told Rachel that he didn’t believe in ghosts. “I don’t believe in anything I can’t see with my own eyes,” he always said. Well the first real ghost he ever saw would be the last thing he would ever see as Hammersmith dug the nail claws of his hammers into Clive’s skull and popped out his eyes.

As Hammersmith dropped Clive’s dead body and turned to Rachel she realized…she was next. She forced herself to her feet and limped back into the house. Hammersmith followed swiftly behind. She screamed and shouted at the monster, begging him to leave her alone. She knocked over tables, threw chairs, did everything she could to keep him at bay. When she reached the kitchen she grabbed the lantern by Bob’s corpse and threw it at Hammersmith. The old oil lamp hit his body and shattered, engulfing him in flame. But the beast seemed undeterred, leaving a trail of fire behind as he continued to chase her. Half the house was ablaze by the time Hammersmith cornered Rachel.

It was in the construction area of the house. The same place where they got the battery, not far from Brandy’s broken corpse. Hammersmith had Rachel cornered. Her only escape routes were blocked by the growing fire and Hammersmith himself. His body burning, the rags on his face burnt away, revealing a horribly mutilated face with half the flesh burnt off. He roared at Rachel and lunged at her, swinging his hammer hands all around. By sheer luck Rachel saw a small opening. She managed to duck around Hammersmith and he crashed into the wall. With her wounded ankle Rachel collapsed by a couple of sawhorses covered in a tarp. Down on the floor, she could see under the tarp and noticed something she hadn’t before. A large sledgehammer.

Hammersmith picked himself up until he was on his knees. He turned back to see where Rachel had gone and his one eye widened in shock when he saw the teen looming over him, the large sledgehammer raised above her head.

“Hammer THIS!” she yelled. With all her might she swung. Hammersmith’s head seemed to explode on contact. His headless corpse collapsed to the floor, causing the tarp underneath him to catch fire too.

With Hammersmith dead and the house rapidly burning, Rachel dropped the sledgehammer and limped out the back door. She circled around the house again just in time to see the fire trucks arrive. Someone in town noticed the blaze and called the police. Rachel waved them down and screamed like a maniac, begging for them to help…

Weeks later, Rachel lay curled up in the corner of a padded cell in the local psychiatric hospital, her arms wrapped around herself courtesy of the straightjacket she was forced to wear. Quite the scandal began after the police showed up to investigate. Naturally no one believed her story about Hammersmith. It didn’t help that when the fire department put out the blaze they only found the five corpses of her classmates. Not six. Hammersmith’s body had disappeared. Rachel refused to change her story however, even after her arrest for suspected murder of her five classmates. Ultimately she was sentenced to an indeterminate sentence in a psychiatric hospital.

Rachel spent most of her time in her room, raging at the doctors for not believing her and ignoring her neighbor’s attempts to torment her. The man in the room next to hers heard her story about Hammersmith and saw an opportunity to have some fun. Often at night he would bang on the walls to mimic hammering to torment her. Rachel would ignore it but day after day it steadily got on her nerves. She knew he was waiting for her to knock back. That way he could torment by saying Hammersmith was coming for her now. One night she had enough and finally knocked back to shut him up. Curled up against the wall, she straightened up and banged her head against the padded walls, sending a faint knocking echoing back… 

But she did not realize that her neighbor had been moved to another cell. The doctors heard what he was doing and moved him to another room. His old one was currently empty. But still in the middle of the night Rachel heard soft hammering from just next door. She knocked back and plopped back to the floor, her hands balling into fists under her straightjacket in a rage. She closed her eyes to force herself to go to sleep. She ignored the sound of footsteps just outside her door. She did not see the strange shape appear on the other side of the observation window in her door. She did not notice the shadowy shape of a hammer appear as it tapped on the door…

**_THE END_ **


End file.
